The Save A Smile Program provides dentures based on a sliding scale fee to clients in need of significant dental work to improve the overall health of the client while increasing self-esteem and chances of employment.

By purchasing new equipment, Columbia Oral Health Clinic will be able to expand its hours and allow for more patient visits. This will improve the oral health status of the uninsured and underinsured of this client population of the Midlands. 

The Communities in Schools will provide a tiered model of services to help students gain necessary skills for personal and academic growth, and to minimize the impact physical and mental health issues can have on students in the classroom.

This project will combine culinary training for school district food service staff, a Healthy Young People Empowerment (HYPE) team and a community coalition to increase student and community engagement in food and cafeteria changes, promoting healthier foods.

East Cooper Community Outreach (ECCO) aims to improve chronic disease management for uninsured adults by pairing health coaching from nurse practitioners with healthy eating education. This grant will allow the Partners in HealthCare clinic to expand its hours, increasing the number of people receiving care. It will also offer Cooking Matters classes to educate participants on healthier food options and cooking methods.

Partnering with the community paramedicine program in select low-income neighborhoods in Greenville County, Rebuild Upstate will address the health and safety needs of patient homes by building ramps, removing moldy carpet, etc. Rebuild Upstate will be able to make necessary repairs in the homes of patients participating in the community paramedicine program to improve their health statuses.

This grant aims to alleviate the barriers of transportation and affordability of oral health screening and prevention services of a mobile care dental unit for low-income children in Beaufort, Jasper and Hampton counties.

A grant will be used to develop a strategic plan to promote advanced care planning (ACP) in the state. ACP considers necessary medical decisions and develops a care plan when a patient is no longer able to speak for themselves. Key partners will convene to determine best practices to educate physicians and South Carolina residents on ACP. An increase in the number of ACPs will ensure patient needs are met and increase the quality of services during end-of-life care.

Closing the Gap in Healthcare, Inc. was awarded a grant to improve health literacy in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties. The goal is to create and deliver health literacy messages through the media that are easy to understand and culturally sensitive. Improving the health literacy of under-served populations can increase knowledge and understanding of the importance of health care services and increase health outcomes overall.

The Columbia Oral Health Clinic provides free oral exams to uninsured and underinsured patients living with HIV/AIDS. In 2013, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) ranked Columbia, SC 14 among the nation's metropolitan areas for new HIV/AIDS cases annually. Most dental clinics across the state do not provide services to patients with HIV/AIDS and the Columbia Oral Health Clinic is the only dental clinic in the city serving this population. The Foundation provided a grant to assist with the upgrade of equipment to better serve these individuals. This will reduce infection and increase overall patient health.

Greenwood Genetic Center will advance autism research statewide by developing a blood test to diagnose autism. This test would be a first in the world. Identification of certain metabolic abnormalities will provide targets for developing treatment strategies and early intervention for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Based on data from the CDC, 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. This test will allow all children in South Carolina, including those in rural and under-served communities, to receive early detection and treatment.

Healthy Learners will collaborate with 10 school districts in Allendale, Dillon, Georgetown, Greenwood, Lexington and Richland counties to ensure children in need receive health care services. The poverty rate of families with children in these areas is 7 percent higher than the state average. This three-year grant will assist Healthy Learners to provide vision and oral screenings, medications and transportation to clinic appointments for children in these school districts.

Impact America uses innovative vision screening technology for children ages 6 months to 5 years old. The three-year grant will assist Impact America in providing free vision screenings using high-tech digital cameras in Head Start sites and child care centers of low-income populations in 31 counties. Providing vision screenings to these young children will better prepare them to begin school by addressing vision problems. Additionally, Impact America with SC Thrive will train individuals to provide tax preparation services to low-income, working families. This program will ensure families receive the tax credits and assistance programs they need.

The Institute for Child Success will use a three-year grant to complete a landscape study on the current protective services of Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) in South Carolina. Ultimately, this research will help promote the success of South Carolina’s youth by producing research and policy recommendations focused on eliminating toxic stress. The KIDS COUNT Data Book found that 29 percent of children under the age of 5 in South Carolina are in poverty. This can lead to toxic stress environments. Toxic stress is caused by long-term exposure to high-stress situations that lead to lifelong health problems. This grant will seek to understand and lessen the effects of toxic stress in children.

Each year in South Carolina around 2,000 children receive a burn injury. The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has been awarded a two-year grant to develop a burn education and prevention phone app. This app will educate caregivers on the burn healing process, increase access to medical care for burned children and teach users about burn injury prevention. Since the MUSC Burn Program is the only pediatric burn center in the state, the phone app will serve an additional 150 patients and increase access to the vital burn treatment tools MUSC provides in rural areas, decreasing burn incidence in the state.
 

Palmetto Palace will receive a grant to increase access to health care services through technology and telehealth. Telehealth uses technology to deliver virtual medical services. A mobile health van will service Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton, Colleton and Allendale counties where 20 percent of residents had no health insurance in 2012, compared to a nationwide average of 14.8 percent The Community Health Needs Assessment Survey showed that the greatest barrier to accessing medical and services was transportation. The mobile health van will provide access to preventive care services, reducing the dependence on hospitals and financial strain of these services.

Utilizing the funds received from its Foundation grant, the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) will create a pilot program in Greenville, York and Lee counties to enable caseworkers to update and access case files remotely while on site visits. Currently, the average length of time between a site visit and when it is documented is 10 days. This program will allow for real-time updates, assisting case managers to make informed and timely decisions in the best interest of children and families.

South Carolina Pharmacy Foundation Inc. will address opioid abuse in South Carolina through a two-year grant. Opioids are medicines prescribed to relieve pain. In South Carolina the mortality rate from drug overdose has tripled from 1999 to 2010, with the majority of deaths caused by prescription medications, like opioids. This program will educate health care providers on the proper management of opioid addiction to prevent over-prescribing opioids. The organization will also raise public awareness of this issue through social media to reduce the number of opioid-related deaths.

The University of South Carolina (USC) Center for Colon Cancer Research (CCCR) has made an impact across the state by providing increased access to colorectal screenings for the medically underserved and uninsured. CCCR was awarded a two-year grant to introduce fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) in remote counties that they do not currently serve. The National Cancer Institute found these unserved counties experience a 20 percent higher mortality rate from colorectal cancer than the rest of the state. CCCR seeks to address this through increased screening and early detection of an additional 375 patients. Since FIT can be done at home, more people can be screened, reducing the occurrence and mortality of colorectal cancer.

A strong health care workforce is needed for community members to receive access to health care services. USC Salkehatchie will use its grant to prepare nursing students for realistic situations using a state-of-the-art simulation lab. This lab will provide access to experimental methods of clinical education to train 70 nursing students who will directly affect nearly 110,000 people living in the region. 

Abbeville County Emergency Services received a grant to expand their Community Paramedic Program to include children's services. Currently, the program addresses chronic health problems in adults. Through this program, families with children will receive home visits from community paramedics. The paramedics will perform safety inspections, monitor potential health issues and assist parents in understanding their children’s conditions, including special needs and chronic conditions such as asthma. Access to pediatricians and OB/GYNs is limited in Abbeville County. This program will increase health care access for residents of different ages.

Greenville Technical College received a grant to purchase equipment to train Nursing Refresher and Medical Assistant students on correct prescription administration. Nearly one in five medication doses administered in hospitals are given in error. The upgraded equipment will better equip individuals in the programs to enter or re-enter the work force. This will help lower medication administration errors.

Harvest Hope Food Bank will address childhood hunger with a grant to up-fit a production kitchen. The kitchen will serve 3,500 food-insecure children in the Midlands at Kids Café sites, which provide food to low-income children in after school programs. Harvest Hope strives to decrease food insecurity for the 101,000 children under the age of 17 who are food insecure in the Midlands area and minimize the risks that come with food insecurity, including toxic stress and developmental delays.

Healthy Smiles of Spartanburg, Inc. will collaborate with Spartanburg County school districts, churches and other community organizations to provide school-based oral health care to nearly 25,000 low-income children. The awarded grant will allow them to address the need for emergent and preventive pediatric dental care in Spartanburg County. One in five children screened in the county needs immediate dental care.

Midlands Housing Alliance (Transitions) is implementing a regional process for picking up unused and excess food from major food sources throughout the Midlands. This will improve the quantity and nutritional quality of meals for its homeless clients. Access to healthy, nutritious and consistent meals is a major concern for many economically disadvantaged and homeless individuals. Through this initiative, establishing broad and reliable sources of reclaimed food will help provide nutritious meals to clients.

Sistercare, Inc. will use its awarded grant to ensure that its clients receive medical care and education on managing their health once they transition from from Sistercare's services. Women who experience abuse often have undiagnosed health problems or limited access to health care. A health services coordinator will assist abused women with getting the care they need through case management and collaboration with medical clinics and hospitals throughout the Midlands.

South Carolina Association of Nonprofit Organizations (SCANPO) seeks to expand awareness among South Carolina’s nonprofits of the non-health factors that influence health. These factors can include education, community safety, and family and social support. This grant will allow SCANPO to assess the need and the opportunity to educate nonprofits on the roles they could have in improving the overall health of their communities.

The Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired – Charleston aims to prevent unnecessary vision loss in pre-kindergarten, low-income children in Charleston County. This grant will help provide more than 1,500 Charleston children with in-school eye screenings. Those that do not pass will be offered a full eye exam by a licensed optometrist or ophthalmologist. They will also receive prescription eyeglasses, if needed. Helping these children get the eye care they need at an earlier age will better equip them to succeed in school, as well as reduce their likelihood of experiencing advanced vision impairment.

The Family Effect has received a grant to launch a pilot project focused on the mental and behavioral health of children in the Greenville County Juvenile Detention Center. An estimated 1,100 children will receive a behavioral health assessment. The assessment will then be given to judges and case workers to inform sentencing and connect children to needed mental health and substance abuse services. The goal is to reduce recidivism and increase access to care for these children. By addressing the mental and behavioral needs of the child, the Family Effect and the corrections system can offer them a higher chance of success and reduce repeat offenses.

The University of South Carolina Arnold School Of Public Health seeks to increase the physical activity levels of young children in South Carolina child care centers by providing research-based, online training to child care providers across the state. This innovative program encourages providers to incorporate physical activity into the children’s daily activities. Less than half of America’s children are meeting the current guideline of three or more hours of physical activity per day. Children need this level of activity to support good health and normal development.

United Way of the Piedmont will assist in expanding the Mental Health America of Greenville County Reassurance Line into Spartanburg County. This project will increase access to mental health care by providing a phone-based, case management program for clients with behavioral and mental health issues. Case workers and trained peer support workers will check in with clients throughout the day and connect clients to needed mental health care resources. The program will improve quality of life and reduce mental health crises in a county experiencing a mental health care worker shortage.

To support a nurse practitioner for forensic interviews with at-risk children.

To conduct forensic interviews and medical exams for abused and neglected children.

To implement an early intervention treatment model that can more quickly identify strategies to manage symptoms resulting from child maltreatment.

To hire three community paramedics as part of a team, which includes a social worker. The team will work in five low-income neighborhoods to address basic medical and other health needs. This will result in the right care at the right time and place.

To support the Levi S. Kirkland, Sr., M.D. Scholarship Fund for in-state minority students. This will increase physician workforce diversity.

To establish a doctoral track for the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program. This includes scholarships for members of the initial class of students.

To support current clients and to increase capacity to serve more low-income, first-time mothers.

To bring together Latina mothers, their medical home team and culturally specific community health workers to address the causes of early childhood obesity.

To use six community paramedics to improve access to care and redirect improper utilization of health care resources of economically vulnerable individuals. This will be through the implementation of a countywide, mobile, integrated health care collaborative.

To launch a mobile food truck to distribute warm meals to low-income children. This will reduce the impact of food insecurity on the health of the district's students.

To provide a revolving source of low-interest loans for the creation of healthy food access points in rural communities.

To enhance behavioral health, dental, prescription and medical services for uninsured adults at free clinics.

To address the root causes of poor health in rural communities.

To provide scholarships for students in the graduate psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program. The focus is on improving access to mental health services in underserved communities.

To increase vision health awareness, restore vision to as many individuals as possible, as well as reduce the incidences of unnecessary and irreversible vision loss.

To reduce the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) which can reduce subsequent negative health, social and economic outcomes.

To conduct a pilot project to offer a diabetes prevention program (DPP) to low-income individuals, at community locations to prevent diabetes.

To create an expanded school mental health model in under-served elementary schools to address a continuum of mental health needs, which is part of a school-family-community partnership, designed to improve mental, behavioral and educational outcomes.

To fund daily operations of the convalescent housing programs and hire a full-time registered nurse to provide primary and preventive health care to clients.

To support ongoing communication, outreach and training efforts.

A one-year grant to enhance the Triple Play Healthy Habits program for three years. It helps clubs meet national healthy eating and physical activity standards at 45 after-school sites, reaching 5,200 students.

A three-year grant fund scholarship for nursing students who commit to work in home-based nursing.

A three-year grant to expand www.LetsGoSC.org mapping statewide and replicate the Let's Go Colleton County program with other proven community-based ideas in six new counties.

A three-year grant for the South Carolina Surgical Quality system.  The goal is to improve the quality of 15 surgical procedures.

A three-year grant for a pilot emergency dental clinic serving an estimated 1,900 uninsured patients five days per week, at two locations.

A three-year grant to aid plans to increase dental services on Johns Island.

A three-year grant to support the implementation of a national model to improve policies and processes at 12-18 clinical sites, in several communities.

A three-year grant to support and implement a quality improvement initiative.  It will gather, assess and analyze health-related fitness education, testing, data management and reporting for all South Carolina Public Schools, impacting 740,000 students.